
{"id":137001,"date":"2026-02-20T22:15:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=137001"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:15:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:15:56","slug":"cz-returns-to-us-for-trump-backed-crypto-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=137001","title":{"rendered":"CZ Returns to US for Trump-Backed Crypto Event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) returned to the United States this week for the first time since his release from a California federal prison in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The visit took place at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, where Zhao attended a 500-person convention hosted by the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial.<\/p>\n<h2>CZ Makes Appearance at Crypto Event<\/h2>\n<p>A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/policy\/pardoned-binance-founder-hobnobs-with-trump-sons-administration-officials-at-mar-a-lago-crypto-fest-c1f99b64\">revealed<\/a> that the gathering brought together prominent figures from finance, technology, and entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>Guests included Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, New York Stock Exchange president Lynn Martin, \u201cShark Tank\u201d personality Kevin O\u2019Leary, and Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong, who had also attended a smaller VIP dinner on Tuesday evening alongside Trump\u2019s sons and CZ. Rapper Nicki Minaj, who has publicly supported the Trump administration, also held a \u201cfireside chat\u201d on that day.<\/p>\n<p>Posting on X during the occasion, Zhao <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2024174657650511948\">shared<\/a> a photo of himself listening to a top federal crypto regulator, writing, \u201cLearned a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CZ, whose crypto exchange has been barred from operating in the U.S. since 2023 for violating anti-money-laundering rules, pleaded guilty to a related charge that same year. He was then sentenced in April 2024 to four months in prison and officially released in late September after serving his term.<\/p>\n<p>Later in October 2025, the crypto entrepreneur <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/donald-trump-grants-pardon-to-changpeng-zhao-cz-reports\/\">received<\/a> a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump. During a recent interview on the \u201cAll-In\u201d podcast, Zhao said he \u201cdidn\u2019t do anything\u201d to secure the clemency but noted that it could help the exchange resume its efforts to return to the American market.<\/p>\n<h2>World Liberty Unveils Ambitious Crypto Vision<\/h2>\n<p>World Liberty\u2019s leadership used the occasion to lay out its vision for the cryptocurrency industry. CEO Zach Witkoff described the company\u2019s goal as creating a \u201cnew digital Bretton Woods system,\u201d referencing the 1944 conference that established a post-war economic order.<\/p>\n<p>His co-founders, the Trump sons, talked about the scale of the event, with Donald Trump Jr. joking about how much it would have been unimaginable a year ago. Meanwhile, Eric Trump compared it to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying it offered \u201cbetter hospitality, better food, better weather, better group of people, less wokeness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The firm also promoted its stablecoin, USD1, and outlined plans to sell digital tokens that would give accredited investors a share of loan revenues from a Trump resort under development in the Maldives.<\/p>\n<p>The president\u2019s sons also <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/trump-crypto-ventures-face-investigation-over-fraud-bribery-and-conflicts-of-interest\/\">addressed<\/a> questions about foreign investment in World Liberty, including a $500 million deal with a senior Abu Dhabi royal, stressing that such moves are standard in global finance and unrelated to government agreements.<\/p>\n<p>Several other Trump administration officials were also in attendance, including Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Michael Selig and Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/cz-returns-to-us-for-trump-backed-crypto-event\/\">CZ Returns to US for Trump-Backed Crypto Event<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/\">CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) returned to the United States this week for the first time since his release from a California federal prison in 2024. The visit took place at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, where Zhao attended a 500-person convention hosted by the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial. CZ Makes Appearance at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":137002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/137002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}